Panel backs Vt. drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants

Migrant supporters hope Legislature acts in '13

A special Vermont legislative panel has put off issuing its final recommendation, but appears strongly in favor of allowing immigrant farmworkers in the country in violation of federal law to get state drivers' licenses.

The panel of nine, including lawmakers and people representing farm, immigrant and human rights groups, put the finishing touches Thursday to a report that's to be given to lawmakers as they convene next month.

Up for debate has been whether and how to issue Vermont drivers' licenses to farm workers who say they're unable to travel without them and feel isolated as a result.

"We live in hard conditions. We can't move freely," migrant Over Lopez told the panel.

Many have to rely on their employer, or a group of volunteer drivers.

Ann Burcroff of Montpelier is one of them and explained what she's seen over the last two years.

"When I'd drive five young men to the grocery, our first stop is the bank and we'd have to wait for the farmer's wife to come down and say 'These are indeed who they say they are, are indeed the people we're paying,' and they couldn't cash their paychecks for groceries until she did that for them," Burcoff told the panel.

Through an interpreter, migrant David Santiago added that "recently my brother had an accident on a nearby dairy farm and I couldn't visit him because I didn't have a license."

In an eight-to-one straw vote, the committee indicated support for making migrant workers eligible for a new kind of drivers' licenses that looks much like those Vermonters now carry.

But Sen. Peg Flory, the Rutland County Republican who also chairs the panel, disagrees. She thinks the new license or driver ID card should be distinguishable.

"But we all agree if you have a license and pass the test you're a safer driver, and if a policeman can identify you that's good thing, and if you have mobility to safely get around your community and feel a better sense of community, that's a good thing for all of us," Flory said.

It is now up to the full Legislature to consider what to do next. Gov. Peter Shumlin hopes to see action.

"(Undocumented workers) they shouldn't havethe same drivers' licenses we have, for security and other reasons -- but it does make sense to make it possible for them to legally operate a vehicle if they can pass the test," Shumlin said Thursday.